Uganda’s lush tropical jungles, rainforests, savannahs, lakes and rivers are home to an astonishing array of biodiversity. In addition to supporting wildlife, so vital for the country's future heritage and tourist industry, Uganda's forest resources are an essential foundation for the country's climate change commitments as well as livelihoods of forest-dependent communities. However, these valuable forest resources are disappearing rapidly. According to Uganda’s Forest Reference Level submitted in 2017, deforestation in Uganda is occurring at a rate of 50,147 hectares annually, which creates emissions equivalent to 8,253,982 tons of CO2. If this rate continues unabated, most of the forested area of...

FAO and its partners are delighted to invite you to the online seminar “Peatland mapping and monitoring”. The seminar will present a unique opportunity to exchange ideas with leading experts, launch the recent FAO’s publication “Peatland mapping and monitoring: recommendations and technical overview” and introduce the SEPAL Peatlands Monitoring Module.   Please register here to join the webinar>> Date: Wednesday, 18 March 2020Time: 9:15-10:45 CET (Rome). Compare time in different time zones here.   Are you passionate about protecting peatlands? Hurry up and book your spot! Due to the limited availability of seats, early registration is strongly recommended. The session will highlight the importance of peatland mapping and monitoring and...

A one-day inception meeting of the FAO/GEF project “Building global capacity to increase transparency in the forest sector (CBIT-Forest)” has taken place at the FAO Headquarters in Rome, Italy on 19 February 2020. The workshop gathered 20 participants representing organizations and FAO departments, including forestry, climate change and capacity development, involved in the implementation of the project. After a round of introductions, a brief presentation on the history and work of the Capacity-building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT) Trust Fund was delivered by Jeff Griffin, Senior Coordinator of the GEF Unit at FAO. Afterwards, Julian Fox, the Team Leader of the National Forest Monitoring Team presented...

It is often acknowledged that making decisions based on scientific evidence is good practice and that, therefore, providing decision-makers with reliable information is an important development strategy. This is also true in the forest sector, where forest monitoring has often had the explicit or implicit ambition to inform policy-making. At the country level, there are various examples of how links between forest monitoring and policy-making can be established. Viet Nam, for example, experienced a shift in its forestry sector in the early 1990s as a result of policy efforts to accelerate the agricultural transition and expand a sustainable forest industry. With...

Approximately 2.5 billion people worldwide rely on collective lands as a source of food, fuel and income. The customary claims of indigenous peoples and local communities cover more than half the global landmass, including some of the most important and biodiverse forest areas in the developing world. Recognition of these rights and securing them would make a substantial contribution to reducing deforestation and forest degradation. Secure tenure systems have also been recognized for leading to scaled-up, transformational changes in the landscape for long-term, successful climate change mitigation and activities that enhance sustainable development (FAO-CIFOR 2018). The recently-launched UN-REDD technical paper, “Collective...